Sinister Shadows
by DigimonDragonLady
Summary: 1x2/3x4 AU fic. Four boys are accepted at the expirimental St. Gabrielle's Institute. What are they doing there? Why are there only 4 students? What do they have in common? And most importantly, what plans does the headmaster, Doctor J, have for them?
1. Chapter One

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Dragon Lady: _Oooh. Another Gundam Wing fic? _

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Ken: ***sighs in disgust* **_And this still doesn't have anything to do with those Digimon fics that you haven't finished yet. _****

Dragon Lady: _Sorry, Ken-chan. I'll get around to it one of these days. _**^^;**

Ken: _Yeah right. _**-_-;;; **

Dragon Lady: **^^** _Um…yes. Neways, here's a new fic that I've started working on. _

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Ken: Unfortunately it's going to be another multi-chapter fic rather than a one shot. **-_-**

Dragon Lady: _Yeah…well…I haven't written a one shot fic in quite awhile now. But…this fic is going to be fun. _**^_^ **

Ken: _All right, Dragon Lady doesn't own Gundam Wing or any of its characters._

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Dragon Lady: _And this fic was inspired by the book _Down a Dark Hall _by Lois Duncan, so I can't take any credit for the idea. And it is definitely AU. So its not going to have anything to do with Gundams or anything. Just the characters and occasionally their pasts will be used for this fic. _

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Ken: _It's shounen-ai, yaoi, m/m coupling, whatever you people want to call it._

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Dragon Lady: 1x2 _and_ 3x4. _Wow…I'm writing a story that is definitely 1x2 from the very beginning. A story that has definite_ 1x2 _before any _3x4 _even starts to develop. _**o.O *laughs* **_Now aren't you just so proud of me, Wil? _**^_~**

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"Quatre. Quatre, wake up."

Quatre groaned and grumbled something incomprehensible, shifting his position in his still dream-like state. He was very tempted to ignore the voice and return to that comfortable dark void where he had been only moments before, but this voice was very persistent in its nagging.

"Quatre, open your eyes," it commanded.

And so he did just that; blinking his eyes open in confusion. "…W-what?"

"We're almost to the town near the school," his sister Iria answered calmly. "We're stopping to put some fuel in the car and then we'll continue on."

Quatre frowned at her sulkily and turned his attention out of the window of their vehicle at the moving landscape. Iria had woken him from his nap to tell him that? Now all he had to look at was the desolate brown grass hills until they made it to the village. "There's nothing worthwhile out here," he noted irritably.

"The town is very small," Rashid, their driver, told him; taking his eyes off the road for a moment to observe Quatre in the rearview mirror. "I dare say there is little more than a few small stores there, to provide the necessities."

"What will I do for fun, then?" Quatre asked, his frown deepening.

"Don't worry, Quatre. I'm sure they'll have plenty for you to do at the school. Most of your time will probably be spent there," Iria reassured him.

Quatre "hmphed" at her. He didn't find that at all comforting. He'd be a social outcast at this place, he just knew it. He'd be lonely and stranded with masses of people who despised him. "I don't want to go here," he said suddenly.

"Quatre, you loved the idea of attending the Institute when Father first suggested it," Iria sighed in evident frustration. She loved her little brother, but he was making things so difficult for her.

"Well, I've changed my mind," Quatre informed her snappishly. "This is just a way to get rid of me, and I'm not going to cooperate. Father just doesn't want me around to remind him of Mother."

A dead silence descended upon the three occupants of the car. Quatre mentally winced. He shouldn't have said that. But it was the truth, wasn't it?

"Oh, Quatre, you know that's not true," Iria told him softly.

"Yes it is," Quatre replied just as softly. "For all everyone pretends, it is. And I'm going to be miserable at the Institute, without Wufei. He's my only real friend, besides you and Rashid."

"You will make lots of fine friends here, Master Quatre," Rashid told him in that serious, deep voice of his.

"Maybe," Quatre muttered without much hope.

He went back to staring blankly out the window. 

* * *

They had gotten gas in the car, and had asked directions to his school from the station attendant. At first the man had been surprised at their even thinking there was a school for miles, but when they mentioned that according to the school it was an old remodeled estate he finally figured that they must be asking after the old Dermail place, a name that Quatre had not yet heard it called.

So they'd finally arrived at their destination after finally escaping the attendant, who was apparently very interested about the new purchasers of the Dermail estate.

When they had first caught sight of it, even Quatre had been excited into exclaiming over the beauty of it. It was enormous. Like a magnificent castle in the middle of drab dreariness. The Dermail House, or mansion as it were, was incredible. For a brief moment Quatre had thought for sure that maybe staying here wouldn't be such a bad thing after all. But then the car had pulled through the dark iron gates, and his whole perspective shifted for the worst.

Rashid pulled the car up in front, where a long, impressive stone staircase lead to the heavy oaken double doors of the St. Gabrielle's Institute. Quatre shivered as he looked upon it.

The house felt dark to him, not at all as lighthearted as it appeared to be. Quatre got a strange sense of foreboding, and it was not at all a pleasant feeling to have.

"Now we'll go check in with the headmaster," Iria declared. "You'll bring Quatre's bags, won't you, Rashid?"

She needn't have asked. Rashid was already preparing to do just that.

Quatre hesitated as they started up toward the doors. "Iria, I'm serious, I really don't want to go here," he whispered, suddenly afraid of who might overhear them. "Something is very wrong with this place. It's…evil."

Quatre glared at her when his sister laughed. "Don't be silly, little brother," she chided gently. "Its just nerves talking now. You'll see."

Iria's right, he tried desperately to convince himself. It's only nerves and an overactive imagination at work here.

But the closer they came to the massive doors, the worse the sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach became.

Before either Iria or Quatre himself could touch the door, it flew open on its own accord, startling them both into jumping backwards. It took Quatre's eyes a few moments to adjust to the darkness inside.

An aged man stepped out of the doorway. "Ah, the last of our students has arrived, I see. As all the others are here I take it to mean that you would be one Quatre Raberba Winner."

The man had his attention trained on Quatre.

Quatre swallowed and nodded mutely.

"I am the headmaster here at the St. Gabrielle Institute. You may call me Doctor J, young man."

"Thank you for accepting my brother into your school, Doctor," Iria broke in smoothly, when it became apparently that Quatre had been momentarily robbed of his ability to speak. "I am sure that Quatre is going to be very happy here."

"Indeed Ms. Winner, we here at the Institute will do everything we can to make all of our young gentlemen feel at home in a place that has already become our home."

Iria smiled uncertainly, and nodded. Quatre noticed that his sister was also having a difficult time trying to keep herself from staring at Doctor J's mechanical arm.

"Well then, why don't we get the young Master set up in his room?" Doctor J suggested, gesturing for Rashid to come forward with Quatre's bags.

* * *

Quatre was astounded when he saw the room which Doctor J had shown him to. It was very luxurious indeed. Not at all what he had been expecting. The double bed set prominently against the right wall looked like the person went to sleep in it might get lost in all of the sheets and pillows on it. There was even a curtain that one could draw closed, to guard against the cold during winter months, Quatre assumed.

"How gorgeous!" Iria exclaimed.

"We only want the very best for our students," Doctor J replied with his strange smile which even Quatre could only describe as creepy.

"Excuse me, Doctor J," he spoke the name shyly, because he was used to addressing his elders with much more formality. "But won't I be having a roommate?"

"Why no," Doctor J responded as if surprised he should even ask. "We felt that it was most important that every young man have a room to himself, because there is more than enough of them. More gets done that way, now doesn't it?"

Quatre found himself having to agree with him there. Having no roommate meant less study distractions. Wufei and Quatre had planned on sharing a dorm when they got here, but the St. Gabrielle Institute had not accepted his friend, even though Wufei's transcript was surely much more impressive than Quatre's.

"So, what exactly are you expecting to learn at St. Gabrielle's, Master Winner?" the headmaster asked.

"Well…I…don't know," Quatre stammered out his reply with a small frown of confusion. Doctor J's question had caught him off his guard. Shouldn't he be the one asking Doctor J what St. Gabrielle's planned to teach him?

"Do you paint or draw? Like writing stories?"

"Well…I play the violin and some piano…if by that question you wanted to know what I could do in the way of arts, sir."

"Excellent, excellent. The arts are very important here at St. Gabrielle's. Each student will have a personal teacher to go to for their particular talents. I shall see that you get set up with our music teacher."

"Well, Quatre, it looks like you're all set up," Iria smiled. "We'll leave you now."

Quatre shot her a dark glare behind Doctor J's back. Traitor, his eyes accused her.

"Promise you'll write often, Quatre?" she moved to hug him. "We'll send the school's address to Wufei for you. I know you two will want to keep in touch."

"Goodbye, Iria. Goodbye, Rashid," Quatre returned.

"I'll just see this beautiful young woman out, then," Doctor J said. "I dare say the other young men will make themselves known to you soon enough, Master Winner. The dinner bell will be ringing in a short time. Six o'clock sharp, every evening."

"Yes, sir. Thank you," Quatre replied.

When they had all left the room, shutting the door behind them, Quatre went to the window and watched as his sister and Rashid got into their car and drove away. He didn't think the school's atmosphere had agreed with Iria, and yet she left him here. So much for his loving sister.

* * *

Quatre wasn't quite sure how long he sat at the window box seat staring out at the school grounds, but soon the door of his room opened with a terrifying bang and three boys entered. Quatre leapt up in alarm.

"Hi!" A boy with long, braided chestnut hair exclaimed enthusiastically upon seeing him. "You must be Quatre Winner. Oh, sorry. Did we scare you? Didn't mean to."

Quatre breathed as his heart rate slowed to its normal level and stared at the intruders in polite puzzlement.

"Isn't St. Gabrielle's just so cool?" the boy continued to babble on. "I mean, its all enormous and dark and old and everything. Just the kind of place where you'd expect to find ghosts and all kinds of creepy monsters roaming the halls, right? I love it! Only, it makes me feel a little awkward, because its awfully quiet here, isn't it? And I'm rarely quiet, so I guess I sound a little out of place."

"I see…" Quatre replied, sounding rather awkward himself, as he had no idea what he was supposed to say in this situation. He looked at the other two young men, who appeared to have been dragged into his room against their wills. Perhaps they were somewhat bashful about intruding on people's privacy.

"Oh, sorry! Here I am carrying on and I haven't even introduced myself! I'm Duo Maxwell, pleased to meet you. And these two quiet guys here are Heero Yuy and Trowa Barton," he pointed to both of them in turn.

"Heero and I have known each other for years, and when I found out that he was coming here too, I had hoped there would be some more talkative people who could possibly help me to draw him out of his shell a little. But no, I find out that Trowa is just as withdrawn as he is." Duo threw up his hands in defeat and then shrugged in a "but what can I do" kind of way.

"Its wonderful to meet you all," Quatre said.

Duo made a face at him. "'Wonderful to meet you'? Oh, no. You're not going to be one of those incredibly polite, snobby, stuck-up kinds, are you?"

"I'm not snobby and stuck-up," Quatre was surprised at his own indignant protest, he didn't even know these people, but already he felt very comfortable in their presences. "And what's wrong with being polite?"

"Good." Duo laughed and shrugged again, "And nothing's wrong with it, I suppose. Just as long as you don't start thinking you're too good to talk to us."

"That would get awfully lonely for me, with no one to talk to," Quatre pointed out.

"Yeah, I guess it would," Duo grinned in agreement, as if he were glad that Quatre was seeing things his way. He noticed Quatre's suitcases still piled up on his bed where Rashid had left them, still untouched. "Hey, do you need help getting unpacked? We're already all set up, so we can help to save you some time."

"No, that's all right. But thank you for offering," Quatre declined. "I'd rather just do it myself."

"Your call," Duo smiled.

"The dinner gong is ringing," Trowa spoke up for the very first time. Quatre and Duo both turned to look at him. "They want us to come down to eat, I suppose."

Quatre smiled uncertainly at him. Trowa had a deep evenly toned voice that was very pleasant to listen to. He found himself thinking it was a shame that the boy didn't talk much, as Duo had said. 

"Great! Hope they've got some decent food here," Duo joked. "Come on, Heero. Food!" Duo grabbed Heero's hand and proceeded to drag him back out of Quatre's room.

Quatre only blinked after the strange boy.

"I hope, whatever the quality, they have enough food to feed a small elephant," Trowa commented, staring after Duo as well. "I can't believe he's still hungry after all the junk food I watched him consume earlier…"

Quatre laughed and smiled at him again. Something told him that he and Trowa could be very close friends. "Well, I hope he leaves some for everyone else, because I am kind of hungry myself."

Trowa made a soft noise of agreement and together they followed Duo and Heero's path from the room, Quatre stopping to shut the door to his room. He paused as it suddenly occurred to him that Doctor J had never given him a key for it. He ran his hands over the knob lightly, murmuring in soft spoken surprise upon a new discovery as he examined the door.

Trowa stopped walking and turned around when he realized that Quatre was no longer beside him. He saw the frown on the small boy's face. "Quatre," he called out, "What's the matter? Aren't you coming?"

Quatre looked up at him and reluctantly turned himself away from the door. "Sorry, I'm coming."

"What's wrong?" Trowa repeated when he caught up and they began walking again.

"Nothing," Quatre lied quickly. "Well, nothing much," he decided to elaborate when Trowa raised a clearly disbelieving brow. "I-I was just noticing how the door locks from the outside, that's all…"

Trowa nodded. Quatre was trying to make it seem like it was not that much of a deal, but Trowa could tell that it was worrying him, even though they had just met. He never stopped to consider how odd it was for him to find himself in tune with the delicate blond.

"I noticed that as well. That must make this house, the estate, very old."

"I wonder though," Quatre hesitated. "The attendant we talked to down in the village told Iria, my sister, that the house was renovated when it was finally bought by the Institute…I wonder why they didn't change the locks. It sounded like there had been a lot of damage to this place to make the renovation a major one."

"They probably just wanted to keep it authentic looking," Trowa suggested, trying to make Quatre feel better, as his tone spoke of increasing nervousness. "It seems like something Doctor J would do, he struck me as somewhat odd."

Quatre took a deep calming breath and nodded. "You're probably right," he agreed. I'm just being silly, he told himself again. "We'd better hurry now if we want for there to be anything left when we get to the table."

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Dragon Lady: _Well, there we go, chapter one. _**^_^**

Ken: _I thought you said that there was _1x2 _before you started throwing out _3x4 _hints…_

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Dragon Lady: _There is. But it won't be obvious that the _1x2 _started before the_ 3x4 _until later chapters…_

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Ken: ***rolls eyes* **

Dragon Lady: _Well, okay, but at least you definitely know its going to be there, right?_ **^^;;;**

Ken: _How sad. _**-_-;;**

Dragon Lady: ***coughs* **_Um…and I'm not really all that great at reading into characters yet. Sorry. I don't want to make them OOC, but I have a feeling it might be a little late for that. _***sighs***

Ken: _Whatever the case, review please._

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Dragon Lady: _Yes, please. Let me know if you like it, huh? That way I'll know if I should continue or not. _


	2. Chapter Two

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Dragon Lady: _Okay, I've been lazy and haven't gotten around to getting part two out, even though I had it done earlier. _**^^;;;**

Ken: ***rolls eyes* **_How typically dl._

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Dragon Lady: **^^;; *coughs* **_Yes, well…_

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Ken: _But, its out now. And fast enough, I suppose._

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Dragon Lady: _I thought you didn't want to have anything to do with this story, Ken?_

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Ken: _…_

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Dragon Lady: _You were the one who was vehemently opposed to my taking time away from other stories to write this, remember?_

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Ken: ***reluctantly admits* **_Yeah, well, it kind of grows on you…_

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Dragon Lady: **^_^**

Ken: _I just wish you'd learn to finish one story before moving on to another one. _****

Dragon Lady: **^^;; **_I'm working on that._

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Ken: _Anyway, the next part of the story awaits you._

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Dragon Lady: _Oooh! _***looks excited* **_A story! Funness! I wonder what's gonna happen! _**^_^**

Ken: _…Dl…it's your story. You wrote it. You already know what's going to happen in it._

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Dragon Lady: _Oh, yeah. I knew that. _**^_^;; **_Enjoy._

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Ken: _If you've gotten this far, you should know that its 1x2 and 3x4, but just in case you haven't realized yet, there's the warning._

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Sinister Shadows

By: DigimonDragonLady

Quatre frowned when they entered the dining room. Heero and Duo were already seated at a large table with four other people, who were obviously teachers and not students, and a lot of empty seats. Duo gestured for Quatre to come and sit next to him, and Quatre did so, Trowa sitting on his other side.

The teachers were all involved in their own conversations, and didn't even appear to have noticed the students. Quatre could see it was making Duo uncomfortable, to be ignored this way.

"What's going on?" he asked, leaning over to whisper to Duo.

"I don't know," Duo answered, just as quietly. "They don't even seem to care that we're sitting here…"

"Where is everyone else?" Quatre asked.

Duo gave him a strange look. "We're only missing the headmaster, aren't we? And I think Doctor J said that he took most of his meals alone…"

"I was talking about the other students…"

"Q-man, what other students?"

Quatre stared at him. "Duo… Are you trying to tell me that we are the only students at this school?"

"Didn't you know, Quatre?"

"This institute has four students?!"

"Sshh. Keep your voice down, Quatre," he shot a worried look at the teachers. Then he seemed to relax a little. "Sorry," he apologized, "but all this quiet makes me really jumpy. I'd fill up this choking silence with any kind of pointless chatter if these teachers weren't making me so uneasy."

"Don't worry about it," Quatre said. "I know how you feel."

Duo gave him a grateful look. "I want to be able to really talk to you guys later, because I'm not sure how often we'll get a chance to in this place; something about it just seems to scream "you'll be studying with all your free time", ya know? Anyway, do you mind if we all meet up in your room the first chance we get?"

"Not at all," Quatre assured him. 

"Thanks," Duo smiled. "I'll talk to Heero if you tell Trowa."

Quatre nodded. He glanced meaningfully at Trowa and the brunette leaned closer to listen to him. "Duo wants us to meet back in my room some time after dinner," he said.

"All right," Trowa agreed.

"This is all making Duo nervous too, though Heero doesn't seem all that bothered by it, but the atmosphere is making me feel like a rabbit surrounded by a bunch of foxes," he glanced at the teachers for emphasis.

But Quatre didn't get a chance to say anything more to Trowa, because at that moment he was interrupted by someone entering the dining room from a side door. Quatre silently observed this new face. 

It was a young girl, who couldn't have been more than his own seventeen years of age. She was pushing a cart that rattled along on squeaky wheels. A sound that seemed to completely fill the room to the point where Quatre was sure his eardrums would burst from it. Somehow the teachers managed to ignore this as well. 

She moved her cart along from person to person, placing bowls in front of everyone at the table and filling them with some kind of steaming soup. Quatre decided that even if no one else did, he would speak up when this girl got to him.

"Thank you," he told her.

She avoided meeting Quatre's gaze and he frowned after her when she moved on to Duo without so much as a nod at him for his acknowledgement. Quatre continued to watch her until she left the room with her cart.

"Well now, doesn't this look wonderful."

Quatre jumped slightly in his seat when he heard the voice. He stared at the teacher who had finally broken the unbearable silence with something more than the sound of a squeaky cart. It was the female teacher with the short blue hair.

"I think this looks like a very promising group of youngsters." This came from the man with the cinnamon colored hair.

"What classes will you all be taking?" asked the woman with the glasses.

Quatre, Duo, Heero, and Trowa looked at one another in confusion. Quatre took it upon himself to speak for the four, when it was obvious that the woman was expecting an answer to her question. "We…we're not exactly sure…"

"No, of course they aren't, Une. They haven't had enough time to discover themselves." Quatre looked curiously at the man with the long platinum blond hair.

"We try and do things differently, here at the Institute, you see," the teacher who had spoken first said. "Something will strike you eventually, and you'll let us know. Though I did hear from Doctor J that I already have a student set up for my particular skills."

"Really?" The woman with the glasses and chestnut brown hair raised an eyebrow and looked them all over. "And which one of you four would be Noin's aspiring little musician?"

"Oh," Quatre blinked. "I guess that would be me. I did tell the headmaster that I played the violin…"

"The violin? How long have you played?" the teacher, whom Quatre was now assuming was Ms. Noin, asked.

"Since I was very young," Quatre replied. "I'm not really sure when I started."

"You're not a beginner then. I'll be working with an advanced student. I hope you aren't too much better than me," she smiled to show she was teasing.

Quatre relaxed a little and gave her a small smile in return.

"What's your name?" she asked.

"I'm Quatre. Quatre Winner."

"Well, I look forward to having you as my student, Quatre Winner. My name is Lucretzia Noin. This lady beside me is Lady Une, Trieze Kushranada, and beside him…well, everyone calls Millardo, Zechs."

"Like Ms. Noin, we are all looking forward to working with you young men," Zechs said.

Having become a little more comfortable, Duo joined in the conversation as well, taking it upon himself to once again introduce Heero and Trowa; not that they seemed to mind in the least.

* * *

Once the dinner was over, and having gone through all the delicious courses, they made their ways back up the stair case to the second story where their rooms were located. Mr. Trieze informed them that usually this time was spent in a small parlor off of the main entry, where the students could work on their school work once formal classes had begun, or socialize with one another if they had none. But should they wish they could return to their rooms to do unpacking or write personal letters.

So they said their goodnights and made their way to the wing where the student dormitories were. Quatre ushered them all into his room and shut the door.

"So…" he said, once they had all made themselves comfortable in various spots in the room. "What do we think?"

"I liked the teachers," Duo commented. "Once they stopped ignoring us anyway."

"This place makes me nervous," Quatre admitted, sinking down onto his bed and drawing his knees up to his chest. "Its like…I feel that I'm being watched."

"I get the same feeling," Heero said gruffly.

"Something here just seems wrong," Trowa said.

"Aren't we all being…a little dismal?" Duo asked. "I mean, for people unused to it, I'm sure this house would make anyone a little nervous. We shouldn't condemn it yet, should we? Once we get to know the schedule…we'll probably be just fine."

They looked at one another uncomfortably.

"I didn't know that it would only be the four of us when I got here, did any of you?" Quatre asked, to cover the awkwardness. "I assumed that there would be many more students…"

"I knew," Duo said. "Father Maxwell and Sister Helen told me before they brought me. St. Gabrielle's is supposed to be a kind of…experimental school…"

"Experimental?" Trowa asked. "I'm not sure I like the sound of that."

"Well, its supposed to be for special "gifted" individuals, so I really don't understand how I got in, because I'm only an average student when all is said and done. But Sister Helen was real happy about it and said that it would give me a chance to be someone important in life," he shrugged.

"The same with me," Quatre agreed. "One of my close friends, Wufei, and I applied together when our school passed out the brochures for St. Gabrielle's. He's really good in all of the subjects he takes, and I couldn't believe they turned down his application."

"Apparently the headmaster knows exactly what he's looking for, and your friend isn't it," Trowa said.

"But the question is, who is?" Heero pointed out.

"And why," Duo added.

"How does something about us four stand out from all the other hundreds of applicants they must have gotten? Could it have just been a random draw?" Quatre asked. "I wish I knew."

"And I doubt Doctor J's gonna tell us anything," Duo scowled. "He just doesn't seem like the type that's into explaining his reasoning for something. Now maybe your teacher Ms. Noin could tell us something, Quatre…"

"I could ask," Quatre nodded.

"I don't trust Doctor J," Heero informed them. "He's too secretive. He looks like he's definitely got his own agenda, and doesn't like it when other people get in his way."

"Too secretive? You're one to talk, Heero," Duo laughed, but stopped when the cheerful sound seemed to be swallowed up by the room. "But I think you're right about him."

"We'll find out what's going on soon enough," Heero promised darkly.

"Don't forget how curiosity killed the cat," Trowa reminded him. "For some reason it seems to me that that's something to keep in mind while dealing with this place."

"What a horrible thought," Quatre shuddered, drawing his knees closer to his chest. Trowa shot him an apologetic look.

"Yeah, we are being awfully morbid. And on our first day here, too. You know, I bet a good nights sleep is all we'll need to alleviate all this stress we're feeling," Duo proposed. "The best thing about arriving at St. Gabrielle's on a Friday is that it gives us the weekend to relax and prepare for our Monday classes."

"Which we don't know what they are," Heero muttered.

"Still, it sounds like a plan to me," Trowa agreed with Duo.

"Such as shame we don't have roommates here, it would make things so much more interesting, ne, Heero?" Duo winked at the Japanese boy. "But I suppose it's kinda pointless considering that there are only four of us in this enormous old place," he shrugged. "Anyway, I'm sacking out. 'Night everyone, come on Heero."

Quatre resisted the urge to burst out laughing as Duo jumped up and dragged a silent Heero out of the room. Poor Heero. "You know," he said. "I always manage to get lost in his words every time Duo starts to ramble on like that."

"I suggest getting used to it, little one, something tells me it's Duo's natural state of character," Trowa replied.

Quatre laughed. "Oh, it doesn't bother me," he said quickly. "Not at all. It makes Duo more interesting. Colorful, don't you think? Its nice, because he reminds me that I'm not alone. I haven't always had a lot of people to call my friends, not real friends who weren't more interested in the family name than me, just Wufei and Rashid, so it's a nice new feeling to be having."

Trowa nodded in agreement and gave him a small smile.

Quatre found that he loved Trowa's smile. It was very different from Duo's open ones, and suggested to Quatre that Trowa could probably understand his feelings of loneliness. The way the corner of his lips just barely moved, as if he were afraid of opening himself to someone, because it would make him vulnerable. But Quatre could see the difference in Trowa's expression. It lightened considerably, and this wonderful kind of warmth seemed to fill his eyes. But it was hesitant, as if he wasn't sure that he was doing it properly.

Gorgeous.

"I should go," Trowa rose from his seat.

Quatre smiled and nodded, swallowing down a sudden lump of nervousness in his throat and standing to move toward the door with him.

"Goodnight, Quatre," Trowa hesitated halfway out the door.

"Goodnight, Trowa," Quatre murmured. It was somewhat of an awkward parting, that was to be sure. Quatre got a fluttering feeling in his stomach when he gazed into Trowa's deep emerald green eyes; like a thousand butterflies were flapping their tiny wings around inside of him.

Why do I feel like I'm on a date, he wondered.

They stared at each other for a while longer, before Trowa nodded once and slipped out the door to enter a room a little farther down the hallway. Quatre felt happier knowing that Trowa's room was close to his own, but he closed the door and leaned back against it in confusion.

That night sleep was a long time in coming to Quatre, as he simply lay on his bed with his eyes wide open, mulling things over in his head. He felt so strange when he was near Trowa. Why was that?

"I…I like Trowa?" he whispered aloud to himself in the pitch black darkness. "As someone more than a friend?"

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Dragon Lady: _Hm. This chapter was shorter than the last one._

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Ken: _I hate it when you do chapter stories. It makes it easier for you to get bored with them and not finish them. You've got like…four or five Digimon ones lying around, and now it looks like you're determined to add a Gundam Wing story to your collection of unfinished fics._

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Dragon Lady: _I'll finish it! I promise! _**^^;;;**

Ken: ***growls* **_You'd better. _

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Dragon Lady: **^_^;; **_I will. _

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Ken: _And you're already throwing out the 3x4? What's happened to the 1x2?_

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Dragon Lady: _It's there. Don't you see 1x2? I see 1x2..._

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Ken: Barely.

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Dragon Lady: _Well I'm not finished yet. _**=P **_But if you hadn't noticed yet, I'm more of a 3x4 fan than anything else. Notice, Quatre as focus character. _

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Ken: ***shrugs* **_Whatever. Its all the same to me, because it has nothing to do with me._

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Dragon Lady: **^^;;;** _Yes, you want me to write another Digimon fic. I get the picture, Ken-chan. Patience is a virtue._

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Ken: _Not with you its not. When someone tries to have patience with you its infuriating, because you take too damn long. _****

Dragon Lady: _See, he's not patient. You've probably got awfully high blood pressure, Ken._

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Ken: ***sighs in exasperation because dl is missing the point* -_-;; **_Read and Review please._

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Dragon Lady: _Yes! Reviews! I live for them! Well…that, Gundam Wing, Digimon, weekends, chocolate and various other pathetic things. I do have a life, dammit! I just choose not exercise it. _**^^;;**


	3. Chapter Three

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Dragon Lady: _Ooh, look, I'm being good and posting a third chapter! _**^_^**

Ken: _It's about time._

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Trowa: _Why do you care? I'm her Gundam Wing muse, I should be the one worried about when she completes GW stories._

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Ken: _Yeah, well, she's not gonna even look at the Digimon stories until she does something with her Gundam Wing ones, so I might as well push her to get her done as soon as possible._

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Trowa: ***nods*** _True._

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Dragon Lady: ***waves arms* **_Hello, you're talking about me like I'm not even here!_

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Ken: ***ignores dl* **_So do you think your story is coming along all right? _

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Dragon Lady: ***is indignant* **_Trowa's story? Hey! I'm the one that's writing it!_

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Trowa: _It's going well enough._

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Dragon Lady: _Well of course it is, that's because I'm writing it!_

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Ken: _So, Dragon Lady (who is only our medium for typing out these ingenious fics, btw), doesn't own Lois Duncan's Down A Dark Hall, which is what this story is based on. _

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Trowa: _Enjoy. _

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Sinister Shadows

By: DigimonDragonLady

There came a knocking at the door. Quatre mumbled in his sleep, turning over to avoid opening his eyes to any harsh light.

"Quatre? Are you awake?"

"No. Go away," Quatre grumbled, covering his head with a pillow and burrowing deeper into his warm sheets.

The door opened anyway. One of the major downsides to having no inside lock on his door, Quatre noted, anyone could barge in at any time. He reluctantly sat up and blinked sleepily at the intruder.

"Not a morning person?" Trowa asked, almost sympathetically.

"Mm," Quatre replied, trying to rid his mouth of that cottony feeling so he could talk. "I've got an alarm clock in my bags somewhere, but I didn't feel like digging it out last night, or I would have been up earlier."

"We shouldn't have kept you up so late last night," Trowa frowned.

Quatre knew that he was worrying about him in that silent way of his. "No, its all right, honestly," he assured Trowa quickly. "It wasn't your fault. I enjoyed talking with you, and Duo, and Heero. I just had a hard time getting to sleep last night, that's all. I guess I must have been too excited, or nervous, or something…"

Trowa nodded his understanding.

"So, what's going on?" Quatre inquired, stifling a yawn.

"You missed breakfast, but Ms. Noin said to go talk to Hilde if you were hungry."

"Missed breakfast?" Quatre asked. "What time is it?"

"Almost eleven."

"Really? That late? Wow, doesn't feel like it to me," Quatre rubbed his eyes sleepily. "Hilde?" he asked after a moment.

"The kitchen hand," Trowa answered.

"The girl who served us dinner last night?"

"I suppose so, yes."

"Hmm. I'm not really so hungry that I couldn't wait until lunch. But what I really need right now is a nice hot shower," he swung his feet over the edge of the bed and stretched.

"I'll wait for you," Trowa offered, "and we could see if Duo and Heero wanted to go on a tour of the grounds with us, if that's what you want to do. There's supposed to be a pond and orchard."

"Sounds like fun," Quatre smiled and opened up his suit case to dig through it for some clothes. He glanced out the window before ducking his head back down again. "Looks like a nice day to be outside, too."

Trowa picked up the unintentional stress on the word "outside". He too looked out the window and then back at Quatre. "I'm sure we could all use a little fresh air," he said.

"And some open spaces," Quatre agreed. "For such an enormous home, St. Gabrielle's feels so…cramped. It's going to end up making me claustrophobic," he laughed softly, and then stopped abruptly with an uncomfortable cough. Apparently the building wasn't too fond of laughter.

"I'll be right back," he promised Trowa and slipped out of his room in search of the bathroom.

* * *

Quatre soon returned to find Trowa seated at the window box, patiently awaiting him. His eyes were closed, soft brown bangs covered his face, and the sunlight played over it, bathing it with a soft warm glow. Quatre paused for a moment to marvel over the boys incredible beauty, before remembering and reminding himself with a stern mental lecture that it was not something he should be doing.

Even if he did have a crush on the other boy, Trowa didn't feel the same way about him. Quatre was only a friend to him, and he shouldn't go falling head over heels in love with Trowa when it was impossible to have him.

"I'm back," he informed him, forcing a cheerful note into his tone and reluctantly breaking the calm spell.

Trowa's eyes opened and looked at him, examining his appearance, and Quatre tried not to tremble helplessly under the piercing intensity of his stare. It felt as if Trowa was seeing right through him, and reading his whole life like a book. Finally, Trowa nodded, rising gracefully and walking toward Quatre.

"Then we'll go get Duo and Heero."

Quatre followed Trowa until they reached what he guessed must be Heero's room. He knew where Duo's room was, because the active boy had pointed it out to him on the way back to dinner the night before.

He was curious as to why Trowa hadn't gone to Duo's room first and then to Heero's, as Duo's room was slightly closer to his own, but he let the question go unvoiced as Trowa knocked on the door and they stood waiting.

"Who is it?" Heero's voice called out.

"It's Trowa and Quatre, Heero," Trowa answered. "We wanted to know if you and Duo would like to go for a walk around the grounds with us."

There was a moment of silence in which Quatre could detect a slight flurry of movement from inside the room, and then the door opened.

Quatre blinked in surprise to see Duo standing there framed in the door way, and he held his tongue and tried to put a damper on his curiosity. He glanced at Trowa out of the corner of his eye. Had the brunette guessed that Duo would be here? Is that why he had lead them to Heero's room first?

Or maybe Duo had told him at breakfast that this was where he would be. Anyway, its really none of my business, Quatre reminded himself.

"Heero will go with you guys," Duo said. "But I'm gonna stay inside. I wanted to write a letter to the church today. Ms. Une promised that she'd get it mailed for me when she goes by the village next."

"That sounds fine," Quatre said.

"Don't worry, Duo, we won't kidnap Heero for too long," Trowa promised him.

Duo grinned and waved his hand dismissively. "Nah, I'm not worried about it. Heero's a big boy now, I'm sure he can take care of himself."

"Thanks for the vote of confidence," Heero grunted, appearing at the door behind Duo.

Duo moved out of the doorway to let him through to the hall. "Have fun," he instructed cheerfully. "Behave yourself, Heero, and play nice with the other kids." Duo winked at Quatre, and Quatre attempted to stifle his giggles with his hand at the dark scowl on Heero's face.

"Baka," Heero accused Duo affectionately, still wearing his mock scowl.

"Always," Duo agreed with a smile. "See you guys later."

As the three of them walked down the hall Quatre frowned thoughtfully. "Heero?" he asked, looking at the Japanese boy.

"Hn."

"What's 'baka' mean?"

Heero laughed for the first time that Quatre had heard, and he stared at him in amazement. "It means fool or idiot," Heero answered, slipping back into his impassive stone mask.

"Don't you think it hurts Duo's feelings to be called an idiot?"

"He's quite used to the term, Quatre," Heero said. "We've been close friends since childhood, and it hasn't phased him yet, he's always thought it an incredibly fun word to use. Duo's like rubber," he explained. "He bounces right back."

"You'd know best, Heero."

"You'll see," Heero answered.

* * *

Heero, Trowa, and Quatre were relaxing at the pond, which had really turned out to be more of a very small lake. Quatre sighed in contentment as a small breeze stirred through the trees around them, and he turned his face into it to breath in the smell of the fresh green grass and the scent of peaches from the old orchard.

Trowa had been right in the assumption that getting outdoors would make him feel better. Much better, in fact.

He turned his gaze on the shimmering blue waters of the lake, and on Trowa, who was skipping rocks he found from the bank out over the ripples of waves that the light wind made. Quatre himself was curled up under the shade of an enormous old oak tree, while Heero was stretched out on one of the limbs above him; though how he had gotten up there was beyond Quatre.

"Its such a shame Duo isn't here to enjoy this with us," Quatre commented. "He seems like the type that lives for the outdoors."

"Oh, he is," Heero replied, "and usually he'd be here in a heartbeat, but I think he was very intent on writing that letter to the church."

"The church?"

"Sister Helen and Father Maxwell. They've been his only family since his parents died when he was three years old."

"Oh." Quatre wasn't sure what to say to that. He could recall Duo mentioning a Father Maxwell and a sister Helen the previous night. Quatre didn't want to aggravate the situation and seem like he was prying into Duo's personal life. And it seemed like that, especially since it wasn't Duo telling him, but Heero; but he couldn't help but ask, "Father Maxwell, is that where Duo got his last name?"

"Mmm," Heero said in agreement. "Duo didn't know his parents names, so he took the name of the Maxwell church instead."

"How sad."

"Father Maxwell is a wonderful man, and he offers all the orphans a proper home. He does his best to get them all adopted to, that's how I came to live with my sister Relena, but Duo just never wanted to be anywhere but the church. He really did think of it as his real home."

"That's sweet," Quatre smiled. "So…you're an orphan too, Heero? Like Duo at the church?"

"Hai."

"I take it that means yes…" Quatre shrugged apologetically at his inability to understand any Japanese, but Heero only chuckled softly and nodded.

"That's where I first met Duo."

"I'm so sorry, that you both lost your parents. At least I've still got my father. Not that he wants me around very much. I've got twenty-nine sisters, but I remind him more of my mother than any of them." Quatre sighed, "So he doesn't want me very often. I guess that's why he sent me here, really. Far away from him."

"That means that everyone here has lost at least one parent," Trowa said, coming to sit next to Quatre. "Interesting that we have such a thing in common."

"Suspicious you mean," Heero said.

"Yes," Trowa answered thoughtfully. "Does it mean something?"

"Who knows?" Quatre shrugged helplessly. "I'm beginning to think that I'll never understand."

"What was it like for you, Trowa?" Heero asked, "loosing your family?"

"I didn't loose my whole family," Trowa said softly. "I still have Cathy, my blood sister, and…well, the circus. My parents have always worked at the circus, Catherine and I grew up there with all the lions and clowns and snake charmers and everything else you might see there."

"How exciting," Quatre exclaimed.

"They died when I was around seven, so I still remember them pretty well. They were both trapeze artists, they had an act together and everything. But, one night they left us in the care of the ringmasters wife and went out for dinner to a nearby city. They were killed by a drunk driver."

"I'm sorry," Quatre said, putting a gentle hand on Trowa's shoulder.

"I was asleep when it happened, but I woke up in my room, and my mother and father were standing there at the edge of my bed, looking down at me. And they seemed really sad. I tried to talk to them, asking them what was wrong, but they didn't answer me, and I guess I fell back asleep. When I woke up the next morning, everybody was crying and saying how sorry they were for me, and that's when I found out that they were dead. But when I told everyone that I had seen them, no one would believe me."

"Wow…" Quatre whispered. "You saw your parents, after they were supposed to be dead?" Trowa nodded and Quatre bit his lip. "I…I never knew my mother, because she died giving birth to me…but I used to see her in dreams a lot. When I was younger mostly. She'd come to me, and tell me things, and then I'd wake up and go on with my life, and then there'd be this sense of déjà vu when the things she told me started to come true…"

Quatre stopped and listened to himself. He laughed uncomfortably. "I bet we'd sound really funny to anyone listening in on this conversation. The abnormal teenagers of the St. Gabrielle Institute."

"But we're finding out more and more that we have in common," Heero muttered. "Dreams about those people that have died in our lives…" He shook his head. "It just doesn't seem to make any sense."

They were thankfully interrupted by Duo, who was jogging toward them, waving and calling their names.

"Hey, you guys, I brought us lunch!" he shouted as he came nearer, brandishing a large hamper of food at them. "Ms. Noin said that we could eat out here if we wanted, and Hilde packed it for us!"

He sat down on the ground and began to pull things out of the basket. "So watcha been talking about while I was inside?" he asked.

"Nothing much," Heero said.

"Just enjoying the weather," Trowa agreed.

"Ah, well, I finished my letter a while ago, and I was going to come join you sooner, but I got this overwhelming desire to draw a picture, and so I sat down at my desk and just started to draw. And guess what? It turned into a picture of you, Quatre!" He smiled.

"Really?" Quatre asked. "A picture of me? Could I see it when we get back, Duo?"

"Sure," the boy responded cheerfully. "If you'd like."

And thoughts of the drawing were pushed aside while they settled down to the meal before them.

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Trowa: _Not a bad chapter._

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Ken: ***agrees* **_No, it wasn't._

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Dragon Lady: _I liked it. _***is still being ignored by her muses***

Ken: _So we'll get to see another part soon, right?_

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Trowa: _ASAP_

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Ken: ***satisfied* **_Good. _

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Dragon Lady: ***growls in frustration* **_Hello! Talk to me! _****

Ken: _So, with the promise of the next chapter soon…_

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Trowa: _Remember to support your local muses. _**///_^**

Ken: _Donate reviews._

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Dragon Lady: ***frowns thoughtfully* **_Donate reviews? _***blinks* **_Is that anything like donating blood? You make it sound like it would hurt. _

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Ken: **^^;; **


	4. Chapter Four

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Dragon Lady: _Oooh, look at this, another chapter! Go me! _**^_^**

Ken: _Wow…good job, dl. You're posting again. I thought we'd lost you to reading fluffy fan fics forever._

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Dragon Lady: **^^;;** _Well, my first love is reading…_***laughs***

Trowa: _But writing is just as good._

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Dragon Lady: ***shrugs* **_Sometimes, true. I know that something I'm writing is worth keeping if I'm as reluctant to stop working on it for even a minute, as one of the books I read. _**^^**

Ken: _Interesting way to figure out what your decent ideas are. _

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Dragon Lady: _Oh, I have a lot of ideas, but only the best make them off the drawing board. _

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Trowa: _This story has made it off your drawing bored, so I'm sure people would appreciate it if we stopped ranting and let them read it, don't you think?_

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Ken: _Well put._ **^^;**

Dragon Lady: _Absolutely. _**^_^;;**

Ken: _So read, and hopefully you'll enjoy._

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Dragon Lady: _And a big thank you to Bryn for making me realize that I need to be working on all my unfinished stories, like this one! _**^_^**

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Sinister Shadows

By: DigimonDragonLady

Sunday evening, just before dinner, when they were all gathered in the parlor which was a room more modern than the rest of St. Gabrielle's, Duo brought the picture he had done to show Quatre. It had been forgotten the previous day.

"I've got your portrait here, Quatre," Duo called from the entrance of the parlor, flourishing a sheet of paper at him.

"Have you?" Quatre glanced up from a book that he was reading; one that Mr. Treize had lent him from the small library he was compiling at St. Gabrielle's. "Let's have a look then," he said.

Heero and Quatre had been reading, and Trowa dealing a game of solitaire at the small card table in the corner, but with Duo's entrance, they all looked up from their activities. There was something about Duo's liveliness that could waken up any room, and at the moment he looked so innocently pleased with himself that Quatre found himself smiling, though his mood a few moments earlier had been considerably dark.

"I didn't know you were an artist, Duo," Quatre commented as his new friend crossed the room.

"Neither did I, Q-man," Duo replied, handing him the paper. "I kinda surprised myself."

Quatre held the sketch out in front of him to see it, and gasped in amazement. "Duo…it really _is_ of me!"

"I told you it was," Duo leaned over the back of the couch on which Quatre was sitting and smiled at him. "So, what do you think? Do you like it?"

"It's incredible, Duo! Honestly," Quatre couldn't take his eyes off the picture.

Heero had come to look at Duo's drawing as well and stood behind them to see. His eyes widened slightly, and then narrowed again, and he was silent for a moment before he said, "Duo, you couldn't have drawn that. You must have traced it or something."

"No I didn't," Duo gave him a hurt look. "I told you what happened. I had been writing my letter, and then I took a small nap. When I woke up, I could hear you all outside talking, and I was going to go join you, but all of a sudden I felt like drawing a picture. So I got a pencil and a sheet of paper and sat down and drew this. And the funny thing is, I didn't even know what it was going to be, and then it started to look sort of like Quatre, and then it _was_ Quatre." 

Indeed, everything about the sketch screamed Quatre. From the wide shining eyes to the smile that he always wore during his brightest and happiest moments. 

"It's expert, Duo," Heero said patiently, with the air of an adult questioning a small child when they knew they were telling some fantastical story. "Professional. How could you have done it?"

"I just did!" Duo snapped at him, and then calmed down. "I just did."

By this time Trowa had come over to look. "Its wonderful, Duo," he said.

"I really do like it," Quatre said. "Would you - would you let me keep it?"

"Of course," Duo looked pleased. "I'm real glad you like it enough to want it."

"Duo," Heero grabbed his arm, and Duo turned to look at him coolly, as if not caring what it was Heero wanted. "I'm sorry, Duo," Heero said softly, apologetically. "I know you never lie about anything. But…well, its just that we've known each other so long, and to find out that you have this…talent…is just a surprise. It makes me feel like I don't really know you."

Duo's cold expression softened and melted into one of forgiveness. "Oh, Heero, nobody knows me better than you, I can promise you that. And this surprised me too."

Quatre watched Duo and Heero curiously, without making it obvious that he was watching. The more he thought about it, the more he was sure that there was something more than just friendship going on between the two of them. Duo looked like he would have kissed Heero, had they not been interrupted by the arrival of Zechs.

"Good evening," the teacher greeted them. 

"Hello, Zechs," Duo smiled, stepping away from Heero. It had taken most of them, with the exception of Duo, quite a while to get used to calling the man that, but he had refused to give them a last name to use "Mr." with, so they had resorted to using it in the end.

"What have you all got there?" Zechs inquired, directing his attention at the picture that Quatre still held.

"A picture of Quatre that Duo drew," Heero told him, trying for some reason, to make it sound as uninteresting as possible.

"Really?" Zechs asked curiously. He extended his hand. "May I see it, Quatre?"

Quatre reluctantly handed over the sketch to him, and Zechs examined it for a moment, before handing it back and commenting. "That is excellent, Duo. Very well done, indeed. Have you ever taken any art courses before?"

"No, sir," Duo replied. "None."

"Well, I think perhaps then, that is what we should gear you towards here at St. Gabrielle's. I shall talk to Doctor J. and see if we can't get him to find you some art supplies from the village; the headmaster always wants to encourage his students in any way possible."

"Um…thank you…" Duo murmured, not knowing quite what it was he was supposed to say in this instance. He'd only done one little sketch. Wasn't Zechs being a little extreme as to order him all kinds of supplies that he'd never touched before in his life? What would he do with them when he couldn't figure out what to do with them?

Quatre stood up. "Its five minutes before dinner. I'm going to put this in my room before we eat." He excused himself and hurried up the stairs to his room. He entered quickly and shut the door behind him. 

He leaned back against it breathlessly. He hurried through the halls of St. Gabrielle's, when it was dark like this. They were so silent and foreboding that he did not enjoy them at all. He chided himself for being so silly as to start developing the fear of the dark that he had never had as a child now.

Quatre stared down at the picture he held in his trembling hand. The sketch was simple enough while still capturing beauty. The way Duo had drawn his eyes was what captivated him the most. They eyes were those of a young man who was not as certain on the inside as he appeared to be outwardly. They reflected uncertainty, and some inner loneliness and longing.

"Who am I?" the eyes asked. "What is my path in life? In which direction am I traveling? Will I be happy? Do people like me? Does _Trowa_ like me? Am I worth loving?"

* * *

Quatre started his lessons with Ms. Noin on Monday shortly after morning breakfast. She had him bring down his violin from his room and play for her, anything he wanted. When he had finished she brought out a musical composition that he had never played before and asked him if he would try to play it cold for her.

He had played it admirably enough for the first time, with only a few mistakes here and there throughout the piece, and when he stopped she seemed very satisfied.

"It's wonderful, Quatre," she told him, "That you can play so beautifully."

"I like the violin," Quatre said softly. "I-it makes me feel better to just sit and play sometimes. Happier." 

"I understand what you mean," she agreed. "Music like this can set a person free, don't you think?"

"Ms. Noin…" Quatre said. "I'm sorry, but I don't feel very much like playing any more right now."

"What's wrong, Quatre?" she asked. "Is something the matter?"

"I-well, not really. I'm just very tired. I haven't gotten a lot of sleep lately," he answered. She nodded. "And-I was wondering if I could ask you some questions…"

"You can ask me any question you like, Quatre, I'll always try and answer it if I can," she told him seriously.

"Has the Institute really only accepted four students?" he blurted out. "There aren't any more coming?"

"Yes, we have only accepted you four students for our first session," she agreed. "There were many applicants," she continued, as if already sensing his next question, "but most of them didn't fulfill our requirements."

"Why not? They couldn't pass the tests? I didn't think the examinations were that hard. I passed them, and I'm not an all-A student…"

"Its not just that," Ms. Noin told him. "Your selection was not passed entirely on your academic accomplishments. There were other considerations, I was told."

"So…you didn't help to choose us?"

"No. Only Doctor J went through the applications, I believe."

"Doctor J. went through all those applicants…by himself?" Quatre asked incredulously. "What were the other considerations, do you know?"

"Not really, no," she answered, hesitantly, and Quatre thought for a moment that it might have been a question that she was not allowed to answer, and not just one she didn't know. "I suppose you all just have the attributes we want our students to posses."

Quatre found himself thinking about how all of the four students had lost a loved one, and how Trowa had seen his parents after their deaths. 

"Does it bother you to be part a small class?"

Quatre looked up and blinked. "What? No. Not at all. I really enjoy knowing all of my classmates, and it's given me a chance to make some wonderful friends that-that I just know I'm going to keep my whole life."

"Why all these questions, Quatre?" she asked him. 

"No reason, Ms. Noin. I was just-just curious."

"I suppose that's understandable," she said. "Hey, Quatre, why don't you go upstairs and rest. I know I'm supposed to have another hour of class with you before lunch, but you really do look very tired. Try to start getting some more sleep at night, won't you?"

"Thank you, Ms. Noin. And I'll try."

"How about you just look over these compositions, and we'll practice with them again some other time," she suggested.

"Yes ma'am," he agreed, taking the papers from her. "I'll do that."

* * *

Several weeks passed, and Quatre got used to his new schedule and classes and felt that he might be somewhat settling into the house. His favorite would always be the time that he got to spend playing with Ms. Noin, but the rest of the teachers were very nice too. They had world literature with Mr. Treize, who was a very eloquent speaker indeed, and then Ms. Une taught any number of different mathematics courses, depending on what level they worked. Zechs taught them art appreciation, and it seemed that he had taken Duo on as his special case student as Lady Une had taken Heero, and Ms. Noin, Quatre.

Indeed, in time before dinner, Duo babbled happily on about how Zechs had gotten Doctor J to provide him with canvas and oil paints and all other manner of art supplies so that he could draw or paint whenever the desire overcame him.

Quatre thought that Heero still seemed very skeptical and wary of Duo's newly emerged talents, but he kept whatever feelings he had very private and always congratulated Duo accordingly whenever he showed them a new sketch.

Late one evening Quatre was in his room practicing a musical composition that Ms. Noin had given him before he went to sleep. He hadn't been playing for very long before he heard his door open and close and turned to see Trowa standing there.

He put his violin down.

"Is something the matter, Trowa?" he asked in concern.

"No, not at all," Trowa said softly. "I only wanted to listen to you play. You're very good, Quatre."

"Thank you," Quatre replied. "…Where are Duo and Heero?"

"Duo, I believe, is in his room working on another one of his paintings, and Heero is downstairs in the parlor with Ms. Une, working on a complex problem of some sort."

"Heero seems gratified in learning from her."

"Yes," Trowa agreed. "He does indeed. Which only leaves me without an extra teacher."

"Mr. Treize would take you, Trowa," Quatre said. "He thinks you write very well."

"But my writing is only that. Just writing. The rest of you can write just as well. So there is no need for him to take me as his special case student," Trowa shrugged. "But I think maybe, I prefer it that way."

"I see," Quatre said. He was still confused as to why Trowa had come to him. It seemed like his friend had a lot on his mind, but he wasn't really talking to Quatre about anything in particular that was bothering him.

"Quatre," Trowa said, and Quatre looked up at him. "I know that its getting late, but would you come for a walk with me?"

"Outside?" Quatre asked.

"Yes. Outside."

"Whatever for, Trowa?"

"I-I want to look at St. Gabrielle's from the outside again. I can't really explain it."

"Well, all right," Quatre agreed, seeing that Trowa was really very serious about it. "Just let me put my violin away."

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Dragon Lady:_And the plot thickens. _**^_^ *giggles* **_Sorry, I've just always wanted to say that._

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Ken:** -_-;;**

Trowa:** ///_-;;**

Dragon Lady:** *blushes* **_What? _**^^;;**

Ken: _Never mind, dl, it's much too late to save you. There's nothing left of your sanity._

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Dragon Lady: _Well, I could have told you that…_**^^;;; **

Trowa: *sighs* _Why did I have to be the muse of an insane fan fiction authoress?_

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Ken: _News flash, Trowa, all fan fiction authoresses, especially the ones with muses or "voices" running around in their heads, are crazed and insane, particularly the yaoi fans at that for some reason._

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Dragon Lady: _Hey! _

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Trowa: _Be courteous and review, please._

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Dragon Lady: _The reviews are always appreciated. _

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Ken: _Let us know how much you want to see that fifth chapter and maybe it'll keep dl from waiting another month to upload it!_

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Trowa: _Don't push it, Ken._

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Dragon Lady: _Oh, ye of little faith. _**=P**


	5. Chapter Five

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Dragon Lady: _Wow, I'm being good about my stories lately. _***giggles***

Ken: *scowls* _About your GW stories._** *crosses arms childishly***

Trowa: _Good for me. _**///_^**

Dragon Lady: ^^;; _I put up a chapter of a Digimon story too, so stop your whining, Ken. _**=P**

Ken: *shrugs* _True._

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Trowa: _So, Sinister Shadows gets an update, then? Forever Forgotten is still my favorite story that you've done._

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Dragon Lady: _Yeah, but this one's not finished yet. Forever Forgotten is. _**^^**

Ken: _Hey, her original Digimon fantasy fics rate up there. _

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Trowa: _Yeah, but that's Digimon. So that automatically makes it inferior._

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Dragon Lady: _Oooh._

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Ken: _Ouch. _**=P **

Trowa: *shrugs indifferently* 

Dragon Lady: _I still like BOTH. _**^^;;; **

Trowa: _So…onto the story?_

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Dragon Lady: *agrees* _Yes._

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Ken: _Yaoi warning, though it should be kind of apparent at this point. 3x4 and 1x2. _

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Trowa: _Dragon Lady doesn't own Gundam Wing._

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Dragon Lady: _Don't I wish. _**$_$**

Trowa: ///_^;;;

Ken: _And she doesn't own Lois Duncan's Down a Dark Hall. Which is what this fic is based on. So don't tell her that this isn't original in your reviews, she knows._ **=P **

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Sinister Shadows

By: DigimonDragonLady

It had only taken him a minute to put the violin back in its case and slide it under the bed. Then after shutting and locking his door, something that he had taken to doing not long after Duo had given him the sketch of himself, he allowed Trowa to lead him downstairs to the kitchen exit, rather than the main doors.

Just before they went out, they were stopped by Hilde.

"Where do you young men think you're going?" she asked suspiciously.

"Just outside for a walk, Hilde," Quatre answered when Trowa remained silent. "We won't be out for long," he assured her quickly.

Hilde's expression softened when she looked at Quatre. Though she still said little to him, she had become very fond of the boy, because he always had something nice to say whenever he saw her.

"Its getting cooler outside," she said with a nod. "The headmaster wouldn't be pleased if I let you catch a cold." And without another word she turned around and left.

Trowa pushed the door open, and they walked out into the night. "We never see the headmaster," he said, as if continuing a conversation with Hilde. "Doctor J doesn't even join us for the evening meal, so why should he care if we do catch a cold."

Quatre said nothing, just walked along silently beside him.

"Quatre," Trowa said, stopping suddenly and grabbing his arm to pull him to a stop as well. "Look at St. Gabrielle's."

Quatre did as Trowa told him to, and let his eyes travel up and down the building. "What about it?" he asked, guarding his expression carefully and attempting to make his voice sound as casual as possible, but he was almost certain that he was failing miserably to keep the nervousness out of his tone.

"How do you think of it in your mind?" Trowa asked him. "How does it make you feel?"

Quatre stared at him and swallowed. "I-I don't know," he lied, the nervousness in the pit of his stomach intensifying.

"Yes you do," Trowa replied bluntly, and looked slightly disapproving. Quatre winced. "If you had to describe it to someone in one word, just one," Trowa continued in his persistently silent way, "what would that word be?"

Quatre only shook his head, but Trowa took his shoulders in an iron grip and forced him to look up at him. "One word, Quatre," he repeated. "Would it be 'evil'?"

Quatre was trembling, and as he looked down at him, Trowa's gaze softened. He released Quatre as if he were on fire and he had just been burnt. "I'm sorry," he apologized softly. "I didn't mean to hurt you."

"That's all right," Quatre murmured awkwardly, looking at the ground instead of meeting the boy's intense green-eyed gaze.

"I just needed to step back and look at this place that we're living in now. How long have we been here? A month? And I was remembering when I first saw it…how that word came to mind first. Evil."

"But, its really not, is it?" Quatre asked softly reluctantly looking up at him, but as if he were in desperate need of reassurance. "We've been here for a while now, and nothing really bad has happened. It was all just silliness in the beginning, wasn't it, Trowa? Wasn't it?"

"No. No, wrong, Quatre," Trowa said so fiercely that it caused Quatre to take a step backward away from him. "Its not the atmosphere of the house that has changed. Its us. We're becoming accustomed to it. We're adapting. Starting to become part of the shadow that haunts its hallways."

His voice was deadly soft and terrible to hear. "Trowa, please stop," Quatre begged, taking more backward steps. "You're scaring me. I don't want to feel afraid again. I only want to feel…"

"Safe?" Trowa asked, and Quatre flinched.

"Yes," he whispered. "Safe."

"I don't think that we could ever be safe here, Quatre. I'm sorry."

Quatre shivered and looked away from Trowa, once more staring up at the Institution. Then he frowned. "Trowa, that window, the one right there," he pointed. "That one is my window, isn't it?"

Trowa followed his gaze and nodded in agreement. "Yes, mine is three windows to the left." He looked at Quatre curiously. "What's wrong?"

"The light to my room is on. I turned it off before I left. There's someone in my room."

"Maybe its Duo looking for one of us."

"No. No, that can't be it," Quatre said. He put his hand into his vest pocket and pulled out the key that Doctor J had given him to his room. "I locked it before we left…"

Trowa grabbed his hand and proceeded to drag him inside. The command to "hurry," was the only instruction he gave.

* * *

They practically flew up the stairs to Quatre's room; attracting the attention of the teachers and Heero in the parlor as they raced by it, but not bothering to stop and answer when they called out, asking what was wrong.

"Try opening the door," Trowa commanded when they finally reached Quatre's room. "See if it's unlocked now."

Quatre tried pulling on the door handle, but to no avail. By this time all of the teachers and Heero were standing in the hallway with them.

"What's going on here?" Lady Une demanded.

"Quatre saw a light on in his room, and he locked the door before we went outside," Trowa answered gravely.

"You must have left the light on when you went out, Quatre," Ms. Noin said reasonably.

"No," Quatre shook his head. "I'm sure I remember turning it off."

"Is your door locked now?" Zechs asked. 

Quatre hesitated. "Yes," he answered quietly. "Yes it is."

"Young man you gave us all a terrible fright," Mr. Treize admonished.

"It only proves that you were wrong about the light if the door is still locked, Quatre," Heero said. "No one but you has a key to your room, right?"

"That is correct," Lady Une agreed, giving Quatre a severe look.

Trowa took Quatre's key from him and unlocked the door, pushing it open for all to see. Quatre sucked in a small breath of air. The room was now as dark as when he had left it.

"But-but the light is off again," he stammered. "I know I saw…"

"You must have been mistaken," Lady Une said.

"Why don't you go to sleep early tonight, Quatre," Ms. Noin suggested. "You've been looking awfully tired lately, and your eyes can play tricks on you when you're in such and exhausted state."

"Indeed, it can," Mr. Treize agreed.

They all turned and began to walk away, back toward the parlor, clearly none of them believing him. Only Heero hesitated.

"I know I'm not imagining things," Quatre whispered. "You saw the light too, Trowa."

Trowa put a comforting hand on Quatre's shoulder. 

"Come along, Heero," Lady Une said, glancing backward.

Quatre turned to look at Heero, his eyes pleading with his friend to stay and believe him. Heero, however, only mouthed, "later" and turned to follow Lady Une, leaving Quatre to stare helplessly around his room.

* * *

Quatre had another restless night. His mind was troubled and weighted down by the things that Trowa had said to him, by all that he had heard and saw.

He had, upon Trowa's insistence, gone through his things to see if any of his possessions were missing, and had found that the one thing that was nowhere to be found was the portrait that Duo had drawn of Quatre. Neither he, nor Trowa, knew what the disappearance of the sketch could mean. Trowa was sure that someone in the Institute must have copies of their room keys, but they couldn't come up with any reason for one of their teachers or the adults to take something that seemed so trivial.

During his sleep, Quatre's dreams were troubled by many different images. The sketch of himself, a scene with him pleading with Iria and Rashid to come and take him home again, of him telling Wufei all of his fears and watching his friend laugh at him.

And in the shadows, as he was walking down the halls of St. Gabrielle's, there was always a figure shrouded in darkness. Watching him. Always watching. But the figure was not alone. There were so many eyes, everywhere he turned there were eyes. All around him; surrounding him, until Quatre could no longer move because he was frozen to his spot, paralyzed by a blinding fear.

His eyes snapped open in the dark; stunning aquamarine orbs filled with an inexpressible terror. His bed sheets had twisted themselves around his legs as he had tossed and flailed helplessly in his sleep, and Quatre struggled like a mad beast to rid himself of them.

He crumpled to the ground the moment his feet first touched the solid oak floor, but stood again on shaky legs and practically threw himself at the door in his desire to escape. Quatre tugged on the handle desperately, hands scratching and clawing to get it open, but it wouldn't come.

Locked . The door was locked.

He was trapped!

Quatre's strangled cries died in his throat.

In an instant, however, the door had been flung open, and Quatre found himself trapped in a pair of arms. He panicked and pushed and strained to free himself from their grasp, but the arms encircled him and held him tightly.

"Quatre, Quatre calm down. It's all right. Everything is all right."

Quatre tried to struggle more, but found himself drained of his strength, and his body went limp against his captor. Those arms supported him, held him, carried him back to the bed; a deep, calming voice soothed his fears.

"Trowa?" Quatre rasped.

"Ssh," the boy replied. "You're okay, Quatre. You're safe now."

"Safe?" Quatre repeated pitifully, his body trembling.

"Yes. I'll protect you."

"Oh, Trowa!" Quatre buried his face in the other boy's shoulder.

"Ssh," Trowa repeated, laying him down on the bed, stroking his hair soothingly.

"It was so horrible," Quatre murmured. "And I was so scared."

"I know, Quatre. I know."

"No one would believe me, Trowa. No matter what I said. Wufei laughed at me, and the shadows…the shadows." His body shuddered. "They were encircling me, and there was no way from me to escape…"

"I won't let the shadows take you, Quatre."

The blonde looked up into dark green eyes pleadingly. "Promise?" he whispered, refusing to release his hold on Trowa's neck, lest he disappear and leave him alone again.

"I promise."

"Okay."

Trowa gently removed Quatre's arms from their strangle hold around his neck and pushed the sweat drenched blonde bangs out of the boys eyes. "I'll stay with you tonight, if you want me to, all right?"

Quatre nodded thankfully, his eyes never leaving Trowa as the other moved around the small room, shutting the door and fixing the twisted sheets before lying himself down beside Quatre. He put a comforting arm around him when the smaller one snuggled against him, wrapping his slender arms around Trowa's waist and laying his head on his chest.

"I'm sorry, Quatre," Trowa murmured, running his fingers through the silky blond locks of hair. "So very sorry."

"For what?"

"I-I only wish that we could have met somewhere else, some other way, under different circumstances…"

"Mm," Quatre replied. "I think-I think I'd go through all of this again, rather than risk not meeting you, Trowa."

"Why?"

"Because," Quatre answered. "Because I think I've fallen in love with you, even though I tried so very hard not to. I'm sorry…"

Trowa softly kissed his brow. "You can go to sleep, Quatre, I won't let anything hurt you."

"I don't think you could protect me from dreams, Trowa. Not these dreams. And not even you," Quatre said sadly, snuggling closer.

"Well, you don't have to sleep if you don't want to," Trowa responded. "We'll stay just like this until morning if you so choose."

"I'd like that."

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Dragon Lady: _Another chapter down. _**^^**

Ken: _Uhg. Pure sap, woman. Can't you write anything but fluff? _

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Dragon Lady: ^^;;;; _Um…yes?_

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Ken: *raises eyebrow at Trowa* _You're her GW muse, can't you inspire something with more of a plot and some suspense?_

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Dragon Lady: _Now, that's not fair, Ken. You've been my muse for almost two years now. Trowa's new at this._

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Trowa: _Fan girls like the sappy stuff, right? Besides, you definitely have your fair share of sappy Digimon fics. _

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Ken: *coughs* _Yeah, well._

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Dragon Lady: _Yes, I like fluff. Fluff is GOOD. _**^_^**

Trowa: _Please review._

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Ken: _Review! Review, review, review, REVIEW!!!!!_

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Dragon Lady: _Why do you insist on making me sound really desperate, Ken-chan. I write because I like to, not because I'm in it for the ego-stroking. _**=P**

Ken: *shrugs* _Whatever. We still like reviews!_

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Dragon Lady: -_-;; _Right over his head…_


	6. Chapter Six

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Dragon Lady:_Yayfun, I've got another chapter up on this story. _**^_^**

Trowa:_Explain to me again how you want to be an author, and yet such things as "yayfun" are part of your daily vocabulary._

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Dragon Lady: _Made up words are so much fun! _**^_^;; **

Ken: ***rolls eyes* **_Of course._

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Dragon Lady: Actually, yayfun is Shadow Kat's word. I'm just borrowing it.

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Trowa: Why?

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Dragon Lady: ***shrugs* **_Because I felt like saying yayfun. _**^^;; **_Yayness is my word. But I felt that the occasion called for a yayfun rather than a yayness._

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Ken: ***sighs* **_Would somebody put us out of our misery? Please?_

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Dragon Lady: **^^;;;**

Trowa:** ///_^;;; **_Don't mind dl, she's just insane._

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Dragon Lady:** *protests* **_No I'm not, I'm out of sane!_

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Trowa: _…So, as I was saying…enjoy the story! _

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Ken: **^^;;; **

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Sinister Shadows

By: DigimonDragonLady

Soft lashes fluttered open to the morning sunlight streaming through open window curtains.

"Good morning, Little One," a low voice greeted him. "Did you sleep well?"

Quatre frowned and looked up at Trowa. "I didn't mean to go to sleep," he said. "You weren't supposed to let me."

"Bu you needed it, you were exhausted," Trowa replied, gently brushing his fingers down Quatre's cheek, and the boy sighed softly in contentment. "And I watched to make sure the dreams didn't come."

"You stayed awake all night?" Quatre asked incredulously. "For me?"

"Of course."

"But…why?"

"Because I made a promise to protect you, so that's what I'll do," Trowa answered. He could see the confusion in Quatre's eyes, which always turned a stormy colored blue when upset or puzzled. "Because I care about you too much to let anyone hurt you."

"Oh." Quatre smiled a little. "I guess those are good enough reasons."

"They are for me," Trowa kissed him gently.

"But don't exhaust yourself on my account, Trowa," Quatre told him sternly in his best 'I'm trying to get mad and lecture you but I appreciate the sentiment' voice.

"Are you feeling up to breakfast?" Trowa asked in concern. "I could make your excuses to Ms. Noin and the others, tell them you were sick…"

"No," Quatre said quickly. "No, I'd rather not be alone. They'd just tell me to sleep and rest…"

"I understand, Quatre, its all right. Just relax," Trowa soothed. "I'm not going to make you do anything that you don't want to do." Quatre nodded in understanding, and Trowa continued, "Then we should hurry down to breakfast."

* * *

They entered the dining room to see that only Heero sat at the table, sipping a cup of hot coffee while reading the morning newspaper. He looked up when they came in.

"Something wrong?" he asked.

"Bad night, that's all," Quatre muttered.

"Where's Duo?" Trowa asked with a frown.

A flash of painful emotion crossed Heero's face, but was gone almost as fast as it came. "I don't think he's feeling well today," was all Heero said.

"Not feeling well?" Quatre asked, sharing a quick look with Trowa. "Poor Duo."

"He really hasn't been his usual cheerful self lately," Trowa noted.

"No," Heero agreed, the far off look returning to his eyes, "he hasn't."

"What's really wrong with him, Heero?" Quatre questioned gently. "You know him much better than Trowa or I…"

Heero hesitated as if he were about to say something that he didn't want to even think about, let alone talk about. "Duo, he's…"

"Yes?"

"Drifting," Heero finished, sounding . "Further and further away from me everyday." He shook his head in a helpless gesture. "He barely talks to me anymore, and he's been my closest friend since we were young, and then…"

Quatre nodded in understanding.

"Now he's a completely different person. Its like the Duo Maxwell that I've always known never even existed. Like what he was, what I saw was just what I imagined him to be. All he wants to do now is paint; he's practically stopped talking altogether. And you should see his room, it looks like an professional art studio with all the old sheets he's got draped around over the furniture, and the paints."

Hilde entered while Heero was talking. She looked Quatre over speculatively, and Quatre was sure that, despite the elaborate pains he had taken on his appearance that morning, he must still have looked worse for the wear because of the previous nights unsettling events."

"Coffee?" she asked him, indicating the pot in her hand."

"I wish I had the time, Hilde," Quatre sighed. "But my class with Ms. Noin starts in just a few minutes."

"You boys don't eat enough," she accused. "You're all getting too skinny and pale."

"I'll make up for it at lunch," Quatre promised.

Hilde only 'hmphed' at him, she had come to know Quatre's eating habits well enough to know that he rarely ate enough as it was, let alone under any kind of stress. She looked around. "Where's the talkative one?" 

They all looked at one another. "Duo was feeling tired today," Quatre offered finally. "We don't think he's feeling very well."

Hilde frowned. "I'll take a tray up to him."

"Oh, let me, Hilde," Quatre offered. "I really wouldn't mind."

"Hm. Are you sure? Well…that would save me time having to get the Headmaster his breakfast. All right, then, thanks."

She beckoned for Quatre to follow her to the kitchen, but before they could go anywhere, Lady Une entered.

"Quatre, Ms. Noin is waiting for you in the music room."

'I know, Ms. Une," Quatre replied respectfully. "But I offered to take Duo a tray of food for Hilde."

"Yes, where is Mr. Maxwell this morning?" she asked, looking around the room as if she expected Duo to jump out from behind some piece of furniture and proclaim himself too sick to make the days lessons.

"Ill, ma'am," Quatre answered.

"Very well, then. Take him his breakfast quickly and then report to Ms. Noin."

"Yes, ma'am."

"I'll see you later," he promised Trowa. "And I'll speak to Duo for you, Heero. Maybe I can find out what's really going on with him."

"Arigato," Heero said.

"You're welcome," Quatre responded.

* * *

"Duo?" Quatre knocked on his friends door hesitantly, listening for any signs of life from the boy inside the room. "Duo, its Quatre, may I come in?"

"Quatre?" Duo's voice answered faintly. "Um…sure, come on in."

Quatre carefully pushed the door open while balancing the tray of food he was holding. He saw Duo lying stretched out on the bed. He looked very pale and tired. His braid tangled loosely around his arm and torso, and chestnut brown bangs limp against his brow.

"What's all this?" Duo asked weakly, sitting up by propping himself up on his elbows.

"Hilde's sent you up your breakfast," Quatre smiled at him.

Duo flopped back down on the pillows. "I'm not hungry," he said.

Duo Maxwell, not wanting food? "Duo, you should really eat something; you don't look so good."

"I'm fine, really," Duo protested. "Just tired. I've been working really hard lately."

"It looks like it," Quatre agreed, staring around the room. He walked over to a painting set upon the easel. "This is pretty," he commented, examining the half finished landscape. "What are you going to put over here?" he pointed to an unfinished area.

"How am I supposed to know?" Duo answered with an irritated shrug. "It'll come to me when I've got the brush in my hand, like it always does."

"I see."

"There's so much left to do," Duo murmured. "So much that he wants me to do."

"He?" Quatre asked quickly, before the moment was lost.

"Yes, yes, he," Duo sighed wearily. "Do you mind, Quatre, I'm not sure that I really feel up to twenty questions. We can talk later, all right?"

"Sure, Duo," Quatre nodded his agreement. "Sure."

"And you might as well take that tray right back to Hilde."

* * *

Quatre walked into the music room a short time later, looking very disturbed, but attempting to put on a pleasant smile for the benefit of his teacher. Ms. Noin looked up when she heard him enter. 

"Quatre, I'd almost given up on you for the day. Where have you been all this time?"

"I'm sorry, Ms. Noin," he apologized. "I was taking Duo his breakfast, because he wasn't feeling well, but then I had to take the tray Hilde had prepared for him back to the kitchen, because he didn't want it."

"That's too bad, I hope he feels better later," she said sympathetically. "All right, then, just get your violin, and then we can get started."

"My violin! Oh, I left it in my room!" Quatre exclaimed shaking his head at his thoughtlessness. "I'm sorry, Ms. Noin, I don't know what is wrong with me this morning, but I completely forgot it--"

"Quatre," Ms. Noin interrupted. "Your violin is right over there on the chair," she frowned and glanced in the direction.

Quatre followed her gaze and blinked in surprise. "But…I…Did you get it out of my room for me?"

"Quatre, you know I would never go through your things without your knowing about it and having given me permission," she replied, as if shocked that that he would think such a thing of her. "I assumed that you had brought it down yourself before breakfast, because it was waiting when I entered the room this morning."

"No," Quatre said, staring at the violin as if he were loathe to touch it. "No, I didn't. The last place I saw my violin was in my room last night. I was playing it right before Trowa and I went out for our walk, and I put it under the bed and didn't touch it after that…"

"Do you think its possible that Trowa brought it down for you?"

Quatre blushed slightly, wondering if there was anything that went on at the Institute that Lucretzia Noin didn't know about. "He might have," he murmured. "It does seem like something that Trowa would do for me, and he does know where I keep it."

"Well, no matter how it got here, as long as its here we might as well --"

She was staring right past Quatre at the door and she abruptly stopped her sentence. "Yes, Doctor J?" she asked. 

Quatre spun around. The students didn't see the headmaster very often; he always ate in his office and rarely left, except to sometimes drive to the village on the weekends.

"There is a phone call for young Master Winner from his sister," Doctor J informed them, letting his gaze drift over Quatre.

"Iria's calling?" Quatre's face lit up. He had been writing his sister every weekend, but he'd only gotten a few letters in reply to his own, and one of the ones that he had received from Wufei had demanded to know if Quatre was too good to talk to his old friend anymore.

"So it seems," Ms. Noin sighed at the interruption; so much for her lesson. "You'd better go quickly, Quatre, long distance phone call."

"Where do I take it?" Quatre asked eagerly.

"The only working telephone is in my office," Doctor J answered shortly, turning and walking away, and Quatre took it to mean that he was supposed to follow him.

When the headmaster had led him inside the office and closed the door behind them, Quatre snatched up the phone. "Iria?"

"Quatre!" the voice on the other end replied happily. "Its so wonderful to talk to you again."

"Its good to talk to you too, Iria. How is everyone doing? Are you all right? Rashid? Have you talked to Wufei lately?"

"Calm down, little brother," she laughed. "Yes, I'm fine, Rashid is doing well, and Wufei talks with me often, always asking about you and how you're doing. We're all wondering about you. Having so much fun that its hard to find the time to write, huh?"

"What? Not writing? What are you talking about?" Quatre asked in confusion. "Iria…haven't you been getting my letters?" He walked slowly away from Doctor J's desk, turning his back to the man and stretching the phone cord to its limit. Having the headmaster in the room listening to him was making him nervous.

"Oh, we've gotten a few, but it has been quite a while since the last one."

"But…I've been writing a letter every weekend…"

"Well, then," Iria said, "I'm sure we'll get them eventually. They'll probably all come at once. You know the mail service."

Quatre smiled and gave a nervous laugh, still painfully aware of Doctor J's presence. "That must be it," he agreed reluctantly. "Iria…when are you coming to get me?" he asked suddenly.

"Quatre, we'll see each other again when we pick you up for the Christmas vacation, just like we planned."

"But…that's still weeks away!"

"You still want to leave? What's wrong, Quatre? Don't tell me you don't have any friends. You can't be all that miserable. What about that Trowa guy you told me about in your first letter; he sounded very nice. Isn't he your friend?"

"Trowa?" Quatre blushed slightly. "Of course he is, Trowa's been just wonderful, but --" he hesitated and then rushed on. "Iria, I just…strange things are happening here and I--"

"I believe that phone call must be costing your sister a small fortune, Master Winner," Doctor J broke in on him smoothly, cutting off whatever his full reply would have been. "Don't you think its time to let her go?"

Quatre panicked. His call was about to be cut short. "Iria, I have to go, but I really wish you'd come."

"We'll see you at the Christmas vacation, Quatre, and you can decide then if you want to go back to the school or not," Iria said reasonably. "Wufei says to send his love."

"Goodbye, Iria," Quatre sighed in defeat. She hadn't taken him seriously. He knew she wouldn't, but he'd had to try. "Tell Wufei the same for me."

The phone went dead.

Quatre unwillingly handed it back over to Doctor J, who replaced the receiver with a dull click that made him cringe inwardly. "We all have to do our best to fight those unbidden waves of homesickness when far away from our loved ones," Doctor J commented emotionlessly.

"Yes, sir," Quatre agreed wearily. He had turned to go out the door, when his eye was caught by a painting he noticed on the wall.

"Excuse me, headmaster?" He stopped, still staring at the picture. "Where did that painting come from?"

"That?" Doctor J looked up from where he sat bent over paperwork at his desk. "It is a reproduction of a painting done by a man named Thomas Cole, an artist famous for his landscapes."

"I've seen this painting before somewhere," Quatre said slowly, trying to remember. "Only…it was painted from a different angle." He looked at Doctor J. "Is Thomas Cole…did he live around here?"

"Yes, I believe he did. But that was a very long time ago. Thomas Cole is no longer alive."

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Dragon Lady: _There, another chapter all finished. _***is immensely pleased with herself***

Ken:** *sarcastically*** _Yayfun. _***waves a little flag humorlessly***

Dragon Lady:** *ignoring Ken's sarcasm* **_And it's got more cute 'n flufferly 3x4, so chee. And I still say that it has 1x2. I see 1x2, doesn't anybody else? _**^^;;; **_But, anyway! _**^_^;;**

Trowa: _Yes, dl, we're all so proud of you._

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Dragon Lady: _Yes! I have finished yet another chapter on my story. All bow to the Queen of Procrastination and her pocket watch minions of DOOM!! Buhwahahahahahahaha! _

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Trowa:** ///_O**

Ken: _Oh, gods, she's finally lost it. _**O.O**

Dragon Lady: *giggles maniacally* _Wil is right, doom is a fun word. It's almost as fun as "A curse on both your houses!" _**^^;; *runs around shouting "Doom! DOOM! Doooooom!"***

Ken & Trowa:** *grab dl by arms and cart her out of computer room***

Ken: _That's quite enough for one night, dl._

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Trowa: _Try not to scare off the nice readers, okay?_

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Dragon Lady: _Fans? _

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Ken: _No, readers. _

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Dragon Lady: _Not fans? _***pouts* **_Fine._

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Trowa: _Review please. _

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Dragon Lady: _Or I'll send the pocket watches after you!!_

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Ken & Trowa: _DL!!!!!_


	7. Chapter Seven

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Dragon Lady: _Another chapter here we come. _**^_^**

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Trowa: _It's about time. You've been awfully lazy about this story._

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Ken: _It's why they call her the Queen of Procrastination, Trowa. _**-_-;;** _Just look at how she's left so many of my precious stories._

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Dragon Lady: **^^;; *coughs* **_Yes, well, anyway. _

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Ken: _And it doesn't help that she wasn't working on any stories this weekend. __You had a three day weekend and you only got ONE of your stories updated? _

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Dragon Lady: ***protests* **_Hey, this is the weekend before my first school exam. I had some serious studying to do. _

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Trowa: _What?_

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Ken: _Excuse us? You didn't do any studying! Don't even pretend. _

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Dragon Lady: _Yes I did…sort of…_

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Ken: _Liar. Who spent the whole weekend glued to her computer watching Escaflowne episodes?_

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Dragon Lady: **^^;;; **_All right, I'm addicted to yet another anime, so sue me. _**=P **

Trowa: _You had better not go neglecting my Gundam Wing stories to write for that. _

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Dragon Lady: I don't think you've got anything to worry about, Trowa, this anime doesn't lend itself very easily to fan fiction. ***shrugs* **Least I don't think so anyway. No offense to people who can and do write for it. **^_^;;** Being a fantasy fan and a lover of all manner of giant robotic suits **^.~ **I dearly love that anime now. 

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Ken: _Whatever._

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Trowa: _Would you please get on with story? _**///_-;;**

Dragon Lady: _Oh, yeah. Right._ **^_^;; **_Hope you people enjoy! Thanks to everyone who reviews!_

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Ken: _Don't forget, this story remains 1x2 and 3x4 yaoi friendly._** ^_^v**

Trowa: _And Dragon Lady doesn't own Lois Duncan's book _Down a Dark Hall

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Sinister Shadows

By: DigimonDragonLady

"I just don't understand it," Quatre shook his head helplessly. "Iria said that they haven't been getting my letters. But, Trowa, you know I give at least one to Lady Une every Saturday that she goes down to the village!"

Trowa frowned. "The last letter that I received from my sister, Catherine, seemed to imply that she hasn't been getting many of mine either."

"And what have you two been putting in those letters of yours?" a voice asked from the doorway. 

Quatre and Trowa spun around in surprise to see Heero leaning casually against the door frame, with a small satisfied smirk on his lips at their shock.

"Don't you ever knock?" Trowa growled crossly.

Heero shrugged. "Why bother knocking when you've left the door wide open? Not a smart idea if you don't want certain teachers to overhear you, by the way. But I'll repeat my question, what have you two been writing in those letters?"

"What difference does it make?" Trowa asked.

Heero only shrugged again, and Trowa began to get very frustrated with him. "Maybe nothing, maybe something," Heero answered enigmatically.

Trowa narrowed his eyes in irritation, but struggled to remain calm. Weren't they stressed enough without Heero adding to it with his round about answers that weren't really answers at all?

"That I want to go home," Quatre whispered, and Trowa and Heero left off glaring at each other to look at the petite blond. 

Heero moved quickly into the room, shutting the door behind him and nodding once to show Quatre that he was indeed listening.

"About my dreams, too. And other things. The little things that make me feel uncomfortable."

"So they aren't sending them," Heero informed them, as if the answer should have been obvious. "They'll send no letter containing any hints, or suggesting that there is anything out of the ordinary going on at St. Gabrielle's."

"But how could they know what we're writing?" Quatre protested.

Heero looked directly at Quatre and raised an eyebrow. "Do you really think that Doctor J is the sort of person who would have any qualms about opening our mail and reading the contents before deciding whether to send them out or not?"

"Why would he want to do that?" Quatre asked in confusion. "Shouldn't he just assume that we're perfectly happy here, until informed otherwise by us?"

"Quatre, its obvious to anyone that J is keeping secrets," Heero sighed at the boy's innocent obliviousness. "Quite probably dangerous and health threatening ones at that."

"You think J would harm us?" Trowa asked sharply. "I thought that we had agreed that the house itself was unsettling, but --"

"We can't assume anything at this point," Heero interrupted snappishly, causing Trowa and Quatre to stare at him in surprise. Heero had always maintained a calm façade when faced with any situation, but now he appeared to slump a little.

"I apologize," he said softly. "I should not have yelled. I was only taking my frustrations out on the two of you, and that isn't fair."

"It's perfectly all right, Heero, we understand," Quatre spoke gently. "I knew that you had to be feeling the stress as well. Maybe you're feeling it even more because of D--"

He broke off quickly, blushing. "Forgive me, I didn't mean to broach a painful subject."

"But you've seen him, so you understand, don't you?" Heero muttered darkly. "Duo -- he's sinking so fast -- this house is swallowing him whole, and there's nothing that I can do about it!"

Heero sank dejectedly into one of the fireplace chairs and buried his head in his hands, as if in a gesture of defeat. "I don't know what to do now. I just feel so…powerless. Helpless, even. And for the first time, I don't know -- can't see -- the answer to the problem."

"Oh, Heero," Quatre's already bright eyes brimmed with tears at his friend's obvious distress. "I'm so sorry. I only wish there was something that I could do to help…"

"You don't want to see him suffer," Trowa said, after a length, "You love him, don't you? You'd do anything within your power to protect him, wouldn't you?"

"Yes, of course," Heero answered.

"Then I think that it's time that we three sit down and have a serious talk," Trowa concluded. "It's time we lay down our individual hands and put all of our cards on the table."

"You mean compare notes so that we can get the big picture?" Quatre asked. "We do have to know that we can count on each other, at the very least," he nodded solemnly in agreement.

Heero looked up at them. His deep Prussian blue eyes darkened to near black and regarding them with all seriousness. "Where do we start?"

* * *

"So you're saying that your dreams didn't come back once Trowa stayed the night with you?"

Quatre shook his head no, blushing only slightly. "Not at all."

"And what time was this that you got to his room, Trowa?"

Heero was momentarily playing the part of the interrogator of sorts, as he was not as close to this particular incident as either Trowa or Quatre, but they switched roles as questioners and questionees [1] frequently.

"I don't exactly know," Trowa admitted. "I only remember hearing Quatre shouting, and so I went to check on him. I didn't look at a clock, but I'd have to say that it was roughly around two in the morning. Maybe three at the latest."

"So, to put some of these events in order, Quatre and yourself went on a walk late last evening. To account for the rest of the staff, Mr. Treize, Zechs, Ms. Noin, Lady Une and myself were all in the parlor, Hilde was in the kitchen, Duo in his bedroom, and Doctor J in either his office or his own bedchambers."

"Assuming that Hilde stayed where we last encountered her, and that Doctor J and Duo were in their usual locations, that's correct."

"True," Heero nodded and continued. "Quatre then noticed his room light on when he was sure that he had both turned it off and locked his door before going on this walk with you."

"Right," Quatre replied.

"Any chance that you were looking at the wrong window?" Heero asked.

"None," Quatre answered firmly.

"There are only bedrooms up and down the hall there. That wing of the house belongs to the student dormitories. Both the teachers and the servants wings are on the other side of the house," Trowa reminded him. "There should have been no need for anyone to be in any of the spare bedrooms not belonging to Quatre, you, Duo, or myself."

"I'm only checking," Heero shrugged. "We do have to keep our facts straight."

"Granted," Quatre agreed. "Please, continue."

"You two then proceeded immediately inside to Quatre's room, causing quite a commotion on your way, I might add," Heero smirked. "There we found that Quatre's door was indeed locked, as he had left it, and the light was once more turned out."

"And again, the only ones not present were Duo, Doctor J, and Hilde, though I'm pretty sure that it's safe to say that Hilde couldn't have anything to do with any of this; she's only hired help, after all," Quatre said.

"Be that as it may, with a working position here, she might be someone with access to a spare key to your room," Heero pointed out.

"What about the teachers?" Trowa asked. "I know they were all with us when Quatre reopened his room, but what were they doing while Quatre and I were outside? Did any of them leave the room?"

"Yes," Heero nodded. "Zechs left the room once and supposedly went to the kitchen to retrieve aspirin and a glass of water for Ms. Noin, who had complained of a headache. He returned in a short amount of time, not long before you two went running up the stairs, but with both of the items in question for Ms. Noin."

"Interesting," Trowa frowned.

"Why would Zechs want to break into my room?" Quatre asked. "I'm sure that I can't understand his motive."

"You did say that the only thing you could find missing was that sketch that Duo did of you, correct?" Heero asked thoughtfully.

"That was the only thing that I could find that was gone, yes," Quatre answered with a nod. "Nothing else even appeared to have been touched."

"Zechs is Duo's art teacher, or patron teacher, as it were," Trowa said. "Maybe he wanted that sketch because it could show him something that no one else could see about Duo's new talent."

"Possibly," Heero's eyes narrowed. "In any case, if Zechs only went to get Ms. Noin aspirin and stayed in the kitchen, where Hilde was for the entire length of time that I estimate him to have been gone, his alibi is easy enough to check."

"Then that would leave Doctor J," Quatre concluded.

"No," Heero said sharply. "There's still Duo left."

"But, Heero --"

"We can't rule Duo out as a possibility," Heero said firmly. "He and Doctor J were the only two on the second level, and Duo's bedroom is definitely close enough for him to get in and out of Quatre's room before you two came back."

"Heero, don't you think that if Duo had wanted his drawing back he would have asked me for it?" Quatre asked meekly.

"And Duo doesn't have a key to Quatre's room. But Doctor J, being headmaster, would be the most likely --"

"Duo wouldn't need a key to get into Quatre's room," Heero interrupted Trowa. "It wouldn't take him any time at all to pick a lock, even those old fashioned ones that they've got on our doors."

"Duo knows how to pick locks?" Quatre asked incredulously.

Heero nodded. "He's very good at it. Very fast and incredibly thorough. I'm not sure that even an expert locksmith would be able to tell that a lock had been tampered with after Duo was done with it."

"Where did he learn --"

"That's not the important part," Heero cut off Quatre's question. "The important thing is that he knows how and has the ability to do it."

Quatre nodded in understanding and tried not to let Heero's bluntness upset him too much. He could tell that Heero didn't intend to make it sound like he was outright accusing the person he loved, but at the same time he was struggling against writing him off and showing favoritism.

"So, we can ask Hilde, if she was in the kitchen, about Zechs, but what about Duo?" Trowa asked.

"We search his room," Heero answered calmly.

"Oh, but, Heero!" Quatre protested. "That's a gross invasion of his privacy!"

"We can't just come out and ask him," Heero argued. "If he had taken the picture dishonestly do you think he would admit it to us?"

"Duo told me once that he never lied…"

"Never outright lied, no, but he can find ways of dancing around the questions." Heero sighed. "Look, it's not that I wouldn't want to believe him, but Duo has changed. You've seen it too, and you haven't known him half as long as I have. I know everything there is to know about him, from how he broke his first bone to how he's terrified of fire. I'd want to believe him more than anything in the world, but what if he's changed so much that he doesn't even care if he's lying anymore?"

Quatre and Trowa were silent. 

"We have to find out the truth, no matter what," Heero reminded them. "Doing this might be something that could save Duo, and I'm willing to take any chances necessary to do that. I know that it would be unfair to expect you two to do the same and feel as strongly about this as I do, but I can ask, will you help me?"

Quatre hesitated, glancing at Trowa before nodding.

"How do we go about doing this?" Trowa asked.

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[1]. Is "questionees" even a word? Well, I don't care if it is or not, dammit. If Tolkien and Dr. Seuss could make up words then so can I! ^^;;

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Dragon Lady: _Well, there's another chapter finished. Boy does this story still have several chapters to go. _**o.O**

Ken: ***snickers* **_Your problem, not mine._

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Trowa: _Don't you remember how much you loved this story when you started. It was your first semi serious gw story. _

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Dragon Lady: _Yeah, I still love this story. _**^_^** _I just like some of my others a little better. _**^^**

Trowa: ***shrugs* **_Your call._

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Dragon Lady: ***giggles* **_Whee, but that chapter was so much fun to write! Who else here thought it started to sound like a game of clue?_

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Trowa: ***raises eyebrow***

Ken: **It did?**

Dragon Lady: **^^;;;** _Well…I thought so. How funny, the house even lends itself to a game of clue. I say it was Lady Une in the parlor with the knife!_

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Ken: _Um…dl…nobody's died in this fic…_

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Dragon Lady: _Oh, right. I knew that. _**^^;;;** _Still._

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Trowa: ***sighs in exasperation at DL's flaky behavior* **_Review, please._

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Ken: _It would be much appreciated._

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Dragon Lady: _Or maybe it was Duo in the bedroom with the rope!_

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Trowa: ***blinks* **_Really? I bet Heero wouldn't mind that._

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Dragon Lady:_ Ack! Trowa! _***gets nosebleed* **

Ken: ***snickers* **


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